It’s been a busy couple of months for the architecture and design firm NELSON. It was wrapping up its merger with Wakefield Beasley & Associates and WB Interiors, a deal that was announced last November. It recapitalized its business with two financial partners, H.I.G. Capital and Prudential. And today, NELSON announced that it had entered into a merger agreement with FRCH Design Worldwide, an architecture and design firm with three offices and 200-plus employees, which specializes in retail, hospitality, and mixed-use.
NELSON’s Chairman and CEO, John “Ozzie” Nelson Jr., and FRCH’s CEO, Jim Tippmann, will serve as Co-CEOs of the combined company, which now consists of 25 offices and more than 1,100 employees. FRCH Design Worldwide will be known as FRCH a NELSON company.
Tippmann tells BD+C that he and Nelson started talking “15-16 months ago” about the possibility of merging their two businesses. Such a deal made sense, explains Tippmann, because “we’re both operating in a dynamic, changing business environment.”
FRCH, with estimated revenue of $40 million, had concluded that it either had to acquire a company itself, or find a partner like NELSON that had the geographic reach FRCH needed in order to compete for business from larger clients, especially those propagating brands in multiple markets.
Just as the Wakefield Beasley deal got NELSON deeper into the mixed-use realm, merging with FRCH would bring into NELSON’s stable “a sizable hospitality business,” says Nelson. His company would also benefit from FRCH’s “big retail engine” in a sector where NELSON on its own has had difficulty gaining traction.
Jim Tippmann (left) and John “Ozzie” Nelson Jr., Co-CEOs of NELSON, will manage their company after the merger by region and practice sector. Image: NELSON
As Co-CEOs, Nelson and Tippmann have crafted a regionally defined operating model. Tippmann says he will be “the first point of contact” for NELSON’s business in the Northeast and Southeast, and Nelson will take the lead for its offices in the Midwest and West. Practice responsibilities will align with each of the merging company’s specialties: for example, Tippmann will oversee retail and “consumer interface” projects, whereas office, financial, and industrial projects will fall under Nelson’s domain.
The combined company’s holding company will continue to be based in Minnesota. But Cincinnati—FRCH’s headquarters city—is now NELSON’s biggest office. Atlanta is the company’s biggest market, and will be managed by two offices there. Over the coming months, the leadership of both organizations will further integrate their expanded service offering.
Nelson tells BD+C that he still sees his company as a “global boutique” with an office structure that Tippmann thinks is now “a contemporary model, where leaders can be anywhere in the U.S.” FRCH and NELSON both use video conferencing to connect their offices, which came in handy yesterday when the CEOs were announcing the merger to their employees via electronic town hall-like meetings. (Nelson notes that he spent 2½ hours with 250 people in his company’s Atlanta offices answering their questions. “You want to be as transparent as you can in those meetings,” he says.)
“I couldn’t have been more pleased with how this came together,” says Tippmann.
Nelson says his company has gotten to a size where “we will have an opportunity to grow organically and attract talent.”
However, having been involved in 40 mergers during his 30-year career with the company, Nelson says he’s still on the lookout for acquisition candidates in Southern California and Texas, and for firms that would strengthen NELSON’s competitive position in such sectors as industrial architecture and healthcare.
What he will avoid, though, is finalizing a merger just to get it done. “Culture trumps everything, and you don’t want to do a deal that leaves you with an operating nightmare.”
Related Stories
| Dec 28, 2014
6 trends steering today's college residence halls
University students want more in a residence hall than just a place to sleep. They want a space that reflects their style of living and learning.
| Dec 28, 2014
Using energy modeling to increase project value [AIA course]
This course, worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW, explores how to increase project value through energy modeling, as well as how to conduct quick payback and net present value studies to identify which energy strategies are most viable for the project.
| Dec 28, 2014
The lowdown on LODs: Bringing clarity to BIM
These days, BIM is par for the course across most facets of design. But a lot of the conversation surrounding BIM still lacks clarity due to ambiguous terminology, a lack of clear-cut guiding illustrations, and widely varying implementation, writes GS&P's John Scannell.
| Dec 28, 2014
The future of airport terminal design: destination status, five-star amenities, stress-free travel
Taking a cue from the hospitality industry, airport executives are seeking to make their facilities feel more like destinations, writes HOK's Richard Gammon.
| Dec 28, 2014
10 key design interventions for a healthier, happier, and more productive workplace
Numerous studies and mountains of evidence confirm what common sense has long suggested: healthy, happier workers are more productive, more likely to collaborate with colleagues, and more likely to innovate in ways that benefit the bottom line, writes Gensler's Kirsten Ritchie.
| Dec 28, 2014
7 fresh retail design strategies
Generic ‘boxes’ and indifferent service won’t cut it with today’s savvy shoppers. Retailers are seeking a technology-rich-but-handmade vibe, plus greater speed to market and adaptability.
| Dec 28, 2014
Workplace design trends: Make way for the Millennials
Driven by changing work styles, mobile technology, and the growing presence of Millennials, today’s workplaces are changing, mostly for the better. We examine the top office design trends.
| Dec 28, 2014
AIA: Commercial glass façade and door systems
When it comes to selecting fenestration systems—particularly glass facades and door systems—a number of factors come into play, requiring a thorough evaluation of a project’s individual requirements.
| Dec 28, 2014
10 essential habits of successful architects
Want to take the next step as a design processional? John Gresko, Senior Project Architect with HDR, explores the traits that many great architects possess.
| Dec 28, 2014
10 unglamorous things architects do
An acquaintance recently asked me about the kinds of things I did on a day-to-day basis at work, anticipating a response loaded with enviable activities. She was wrong, writes HDR's John Gresko.
